Glance, a visualizer for Haskell code • Hacker News Board

Re: Glance, a visualizer for Haskell code

#31

Post by dllthomas » Thu, Jan 12, 2017, 7:44 PM UTC

blunte wrote: post #16

I admire the Haskell folks, much in the way I admire theoretical mathematicians... which is to say, I'm sure the work they are doing/did has some value, somewhere (in the past). But the Haskell proponents that I have known have admitted that the reason they don't use Haskell more is because the libraries and ecosystem aren't adequate. That's not to mention that maybe Haskell is just too much for even the above averag…

> So why push deeper?

This would appear, contrarily, to be shallower.

Re: Glance, a visualizer for Haskell code

#32

Post by jblow » Sun, Jan 15, 2017, 11:52 PM UTC

dualogy wrote: post #28

jblow wrote: post #23

I am very interested in program visualization, but I think trying to visualize things at this level is just nutballs. Anyway, it's the wrong problem. I don't need help understanding x * 3 + y. I need help understanding what these 30kLOC in these 17 files do.

If for some reason you actually need to understand 30kloc in 17 files in any meaningfully substantial fashion, I posit this will always require some time investment on your part. (Such as outcommenting most of `main` / a module, then progressively interactively proceeding to dive into the codebase via repl/compile trial+error etc.) I gather that such diagrams and visual aids etc help much more once one's basic unders…

Sure it will involve time investment on my part, but I want a visualization tool to help lighten that investment and help me come to the understanding more quickly.

Re: Glance, a visualizer for Haskell code

#33

Post by blunte » Sat, Jan 21, 2017, 8:18 PM UTC

dualogy wrote: post #27

blunte wrote: post #16

I admire the Haskell folks, much in the way I admire theoretical mathematicians... which is to say, I'm sure the work they are doing/did has some value, somewhere (in the past). But the Haskell proponents that I have known have admitted that the reason they don't use Haskell more is because the libraries and ecosystem aren't adequate. That's not to mention that maybe Haskell is just too much for even the above averag…

As I dove into the Haskell space, I noticed where all the major "innovations" I encountered (as game-changing and substantially productivity/expressiveness/deeper-understanding-enhancing for the developer) in the mainstream tech stacks (whether .net java python ruby rust jquery coffeescript node or the more recent hypes) in the last decade were really discovered/pioneered/refined/formulated/scrutinized/formalized. It…

I really appreciate this comment. I hope that at some point I see the balanced outcome of such approaches to technology. I'm so close the the "throwing out the laptop" scenario you describe.